Baseball glove



April 8, 1953 B. B. STOBBE 2,636,172

BASEBALL GLOVE Filed March 1, 1952 INVENTOR. flerzjamm B. z'abbe Z L ZTTYs Patented Apr. 28, 1953 BASEBALL GLOVE Benjamin B. Stobbe, Ada, Ohio, assignor to'Ohio- Kentucky Manufacturing Company, Ada, Ohio Application March 1, 1952, Serial N6. 274,329 s Claims. ((21. ans) "l i. The present invention relates to baseball gloves and is directed to a glove of novel contour and constructionparticularly adapted to be worn by players occupying those infield positions, other than'first 'bas e, where most of the batted balls that are fielded are rolling or bouncing upon the ground.

An object of the invention is to provide a baseball glove having greatly improved ball catching qualities due to the fact that two certain finger stalls of the glove are integrally joined together by a solid web and that web strengthened and reenforced in a novel manner by an interlaced thong.

Another object of the invention is to provide in a baseball glove having the foregoing characteristics, a dual finger construction that will func-. tion to initially snare and efi'ectively direct to the glove pocket a so-called "ground ball which moves rapidly upon the ground and is best caught by a player wi h a scooping action of his gloved hand.

A further object of the invention is to provide a baseball glove construction which will effectively protect a players second and third fingers from injury by reenforcing the particular finger stalls upon which a well caught, ground ball usually impinges before it enters the glove ball pocket.

Other objects of my invention will appear from the following description and the accompanying drawings in which similar characters of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several views.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the front or in baseball glove.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the rear of the glove depicted' in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1. r I

Fig. 4 is a section taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

In the drawin the numeral 6 refers to a base ball glove comprising a palm piece 1 formed from an integral sheet of leather and including the front portion of a thumb stall 8 secured to the palm piece I by a welted seam 9. A composite back piece ill-is joined to the palm piece along its marginal edges partly by a welted seam l l and on the sides of the glove by integral leather portions, said pieces forming a thumb section l2 and a fingers section 13. As illustrated in Fig. 2 the composite back section is provided with the usual hand opening I4 and an adjustable strap l5. the margins of both being supplied with bound edges l6, saidback piece prejerably havin number of welted. seams l 'l extending from the bottom thereof up to, and meeting, thflwfilllfi seam 9 to secure together ajnumber of; forming sections. The bottom'e'dges of the'back and palm sections are bound and joined together by a laced seam l8, whilst the usual backstop l9 extends between, and is laced to, adjacent porf-i tions of the thumb and fingers sections. '-Ihe front and back pieces may have the usual-ii ings, at least one of which is shown at 20 inFig's. 3 and 4 as a palm piece liner, it being understood that padding is disposed between the piece and liner in such areas and in the amounts necessary to form the desired glove contour.

The portions of the palm piece 1 and the back piece I0 which form the fingers section l3 of the glove are provided with two aligned and laterally spaced open-topped slots 2| and 22 which extend heightwise from the glove ball pocket 230 and open out into the upper edge of the said fingers section. The slot 2| is spaced inwardly from the adjacent side of the fingers section to form with the adjacent side a first finger stall 23 for the glove, whilst the remaining slot 22 is spaced inwardly from the opposite side of the fingers section to form a smallfinger stal1 24. The palm and back pieces extend solidly between the opentopped slots 2| and 22 to form an intermediate, dual fingers stal1 25-46 between the first and small finger stalls. The dual fingers stall 25-26 are disposed in side-by-side relationship and are joined together by solid web portions 21 and 28 of the palm and back sections I and I0, respectively.

A row of vertically spaced, aligned openings 29 and 30 are formed in. the web portions of the palm and back pieces respectively, said rows extending from the glove ball pocket to a point adjacent the top of the glove. A dual fingers stall reenforcing thong 3| is interlaced and drawn through the aligned openings 29 and 3B in the respective palm and back pieces of the glove, and. as most clearly shown in Fig. 3, the interlacing of the thong follows the so-called saddler stitch" wherein corresponding portions of the thong are drawn through opposite sides of each pair of consecutive openings in the row, the center portion of the thong being passed through the lowermost pair of holes therefor. As best shown in Fig. 2 one lateral branch 32 of the thong is laced through the upper end of the dual finger stall 26 and extends across the open-topped slot 22 so that it lashes the small finger stall 24 to the dual fingers stall. The other lateral branch 33 is laced through the upper end of the dual finger stall 25 and connects it to the first finger stall 23.

The interlacing of the thong 3! through the row of vertically spaced openings in the palm and back pieces by the so-jcalled "saddler stitch forms a reenforcing column which extends heightwise along the central part of the dual fingers stall 25-26 thereby strengthening the fingers section around the glove area where ground balls first impinge on the glove before being caught in the ball pocket 239. It will be noted'that the lateral branches 32 and 33 of the reenforcing thong 3| pass in opposite directions through the upper end of the dual fingers stall and thence to the respective finger stalls 23 and 24 to secure the dual stall to said adjacent finger 1 stalls. v Ball impact on the area of the dual fingers r stall, during the catching action, is therefore taken upon the interlaced column and transmitted by its thong branches 32 and 33 to the adjacent finger-stalls and 23 respectivelmand thus materially strengthens the glove at and around the dual fingers stall area for eficctive ball catching purposes.

' What is claimed is:

1. A baseball glove having a palm piece and a back piece joined along their marginal edges to forma thumb section and a. fingers section, the portions of the piecesforming the fingers section having two aligned and laterally spaced opentopp d'slotstherein extending heightwise from interlaced and drawn through the row of aligned openings in the web portions of said pieces.

2. A baseball glove according to claim 1 characterized by the fact that the fingers reenforcing thong is drawn through opposite sides of each consecutive opening in the row.

3. A baseball. glove according to claim 2 further characterized by the fact that the upper ends of the first and small finger stalls are each lashed to an adjacent part or the intermediate dual fingers; stall by lateral branches ofthe reenforcing thong.

- BENJAMIN HSTOBBE.

References Cited in the file of thispatent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number I Name r Date 2,281,315 Latina Apr. 23. 194?- 2,417,996 Stobbe Mar. 25, 1947 'Sonnett et a1 Nov. 2, 1948 

